


Rewind the music box

by Verse



Category: Until Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: For Want of a Nail, Gen, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-13
Updated: 2018-06-21
Packaged: 2019-05-21 18:14:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14920401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Verse/pseuds/Verse
Summary: If you had the power and if you had the meanswould youcould yougo back and save them?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> more 2015 posting yeyy

_**If you had the power** _

_**and if you had the means** _

_**would you** _

_**could you** _

_**go back and save them?** _

_Would she?_

_Yes. A thousand times yes._

_She’d save them, all of them, despite their  mistakes- she’d be hypocrite to pretend she’d never made any. She’d get them back, one by one, her friends, her family all back together, maybe a little broken, maybe a little worn out, but alive and well._

_**Would you?** _

_**Could you?** _

_Could she?_

_Could she face that bitter cold again? Stare at these milk white eyes without moving? Hear these screeches without panicking? Face these dark, cold, wet mines all over again?_

_**Would you?  
** _

_**Could you?**  
_

_Why was she even pondering about that? The past is the past. You can’t change it. This is just another weird dream that’ll plague her for months and will never let her forget that she’d failed._

_**Would you?** _

_**Could you?**  
_

_Would she?  
_

_Yes._

_Could she?_

_Time to figure it out, apparently._

* * *

Beth is five and lost and  _god she’s so scared._

She just wanted to freak Hannah out. Hide in the wood and jump on her when she’d get close by. 

It worked.

But now neither of them know how to go back home.

Beth wants to cry, sniffle even- but she has to stay strong. Strong for Hannah who’s gripping her sleeve like her life depend on it. She’ll find a way. She will.

“…What are you doing here?”

Beth almost jump out of her skin at the unfamiliar, muffled voice.

She half-expect it to be her brother- but no, the person facing her when she spins around is a complete stranger tangled in way too many piece of fabric covering their body. Hannah hides behind her. She doesn’t like strangers. Beth doesn’t either. Her parents always told her not to talk to people she doesn’t know.

The stranger only stares behind their big glasses.

“…Are you lost?”

Slowly, the twins nod. They aren’t talking. Technically, they aren’t breaking their parents’ rules. 

“Here- follow me. I know the way to the Lodge.”

With no other options, the twin follow the stranger to the end of the wood.

(Years later, they still don’t know who helped them that day.)

* * *

Hannah is ten and crying her eyes out. 

She can’t believe she’d been careless enough to lose it- her treasure, her beautiful bracelet. Beth and Josh tries to comfort her, tell her they’ll just buy another- but she doesn’t want to listen. It was precious because it was unique, and replacing it won’t

Something hits her room’s window.

“What was that?”

The Washington siblings look at each others, and slowly, together, make their way to the window

Right behind it, there is Hannah’s bracelet.

(Hannah eventually gives it to her best friend. If it came back to her, it could bring luck, right?)

* * *

Josh is sixteen and ready to party.

It’s his birthday, after all- everyone is here. Chris, Sam, Ashley, Matt- it’s going to be a blast.

They split the cake, sneak in some booze, a few jokes fuse, laughs respond- everything is nice and well. 

On his hangover the very next day, though, Josh wonders- who was the last present of the pile from? None of his friends claimed it.

He shrugs it off- they probably forgot. Or maybe they didn’t want him to know they’d sent two presents.

A couple years pass before he gets his answers.

* * *

Sam is eighteen when everything finally makes sense to the Washington siblings.

She’s upstairs and arguing with Jessica because  _seriously what the fuck_ when she hears shouting bellow. And not the good kind of shouting. Down the stairs they all face two really drunk guys and two startled twins.

“What happened?!” Sam asks, being the mom she is.

“I don’t know! Some- some dude just came up, grabbed something and left!!”

Wh-? Someone? Something? Couldn’t they be a bit more specific?

Apparently no, since the boys are rushing clumsily to the basement, swearing loudly.

“What is going on?” That’s Emily this time.

“I told you! Someone came in and left!”

There are so many things wrong with that sentence Sam doesn’t even know where to start. The whole house was closed. How could a stranger come in? What did they take? Why? 

“Hey! We found a thing!”

Unable to find answers, Sam go join the boys in the basement.

* * *

There’s a broken airvent down there.

Why is there a broken airvent down there.

“I didn’t even know it was there!”

“You think they went this way?”

That’d sure explain how a complete stranger could get in without being noticed. Wouldn’t explain why, but certainly how.

But where does is lead?

“I don’t know. I told you, I didn’t even know there was an airvent here.”

Too many questions, not enough answers.

Sam’s gaze cross Beth’s. She unfortunately quickly recognize the look on her friend’s face. She’s going to go after the stranger.

“Beth. I’m going with you.”

The chatters stop immediately.

“What?” says Josh.

“We don’t know who that is or what they took.” answers Beth. “What I can tell you though, is that someone broke in and we should figure out why.”

Her brother sneak a begging look at Sam, but it’s no use. Nothing will stop Beth from going in, she knows it. the best she can do is go with her and make sure she doesn’t get hurt.

“You guys stay here.”

“But-”

“It’s a miracle you can still walk on a straight line Josh. With everything you drank, you’re staying here.”

He doesn’t look happy, but reluctantly agrees. He knows he can trust her.

Together, Sam and Beth sneak in the airvent.

* * *

They probably should have taken a sweater with them. Then again, the stranger could have gotten away in the meantime.

It’s dark and cold down there. From the rusted equipments Sam had seen, it looks like an abandoned mine.  She’ll have to make some research on who did the mountain belong to after they get back, she thinks.

“Sam! Look at that.”

Sam lowers her gaze to the… Piece of paper on the ground?

She picks it up, inspects it. Recognizes the writing instantly.

_Hannah_

_You look really hot with that top_

_But I bet you’d be hotter without it_

She doesn’t read more of it.

“What is-?”

“Jessica’s pranks” Sam cuts “She told me she wanted to bait Hannah in the room and film whatever she’d do with Mike. They probably wanted her to find this or something.”

“But if it’s here… Did the stranger take it-”

**_“What are you doing here???”_ **

They both jump at the gruff voice, Sam spinning to face the person behind her.

That’s

not what she expected.

For a start, the stranger is short. As short as her. She can’t see their face thanks to the scarf on their mouth and the goggles. Nor anything else, really. Unlike her and Beth, they’re wearing a  _lot_ of clothes.

She can see, however, the huge flamethrower on their hand and the tank fuel on their back.

Sam gulps.

“What about you?!  _You_ just broke into  _our_ house. Who are you?! What do you want?!” Oh, Beth. Sam is sincerely impressed by her bravado.

“Believe it or not, but if I have to give you the whole exposition speech I’d rather  _not_ do it in the middle of creepy dangerous mines.”

Sam would agree. That is, if the person in front of her her wasn’t, you know, a complete stranger who broke into the house.

“You-”

_“You shut your fucking mouth!”_

Whoa. She… didn’t expect such an angry comeback.

“Hey look how you speak to my friend you-”

The loud screech resonating on the cave walls cut her short.

“…You need to go.  _Now_.”

“But-”

_“Samantha just do one thing right in your goddamn life for once and **go**!!”_

Sam doesn’t know what the screech means. She still doesn’t know who is the stranger and what they want. In a few minutes, when she’ll be safe and sound back at the lodge she’ll wonder how did the stranger even know her name.

For now, though, she leaves it all on the side.

She grabs Beth’s hand and  _runs_.

* * *

“We should have stayed!! There were no reasons for us to leave!”

Sam is tired and arguing with Beth when they hear about the stranger again, in the form of three loud knocks at the door. The person who forces the door open once Matt opens it though, isn’t  _the_ stranger but  _a_ stranger.

 _The_ stranger is on his back, though.

“Okay everybody just calm down.” His voice is raspy. “And you, go find a first-aid kit if you don’t want a corpse on your carpet.”

He deposit the unconscious stranger on a couch, Removes their jacket. Sam can’t help but grimace at the sight of the Stranger’s arm. Three deep slashes decorate it, the bleeding barely stopped by the fabrics the Unknown Guy is pressing against it. Thankfully Emily comes back quickly with the kit so he can give them some proper treatment.

“What the hell did that?” Jessica mutters, eyes flickering over the few visible scars and the missing fingers.

“A wendigo.” 

A what?

Without even looking up, the Guy start to explain them.

* * *

“There. She should survive.”

Sam sure hopes so, because while they (She?) were unnecessarily aggressive to her, she wouldn’t wish death on anybody.

“Welp. I’m leaving her to you now. I’ve got monsters to catch.”

“Wait! You can’t- we don’t even know her! Shouldn’t you stay with your sister or something?”

“Sister?” He looks confused. Chris elaborates.

“You said your family hunted these things right? Isn’t she part of it?”

“Oh. No. She just popped up someday and asked for me to train her. We’re only partners.”

Sam wants to ask more- they all do. But the Guy is already out of the door.

What an asshole.

They’ll have to make sure The Stranger doesn’t pass away in her sleep, she guesses.

* * *

The party is pretty dead after that.

They take turn on surveying The Stranger. None of them is sure of what they’d do if The Stranger’s state actually turned worse, but none of them like the idea of staying idle, either. So they do that.

Sam isn’t here when The Stranger wakes up, but her yells are loud enough to wake  _her_ up.

“No no no nonono!! Go away!! _Leave me alone!!”_

She rushes to the living room to find Hannah trying to calm down the Stranger, who’s currently flailing and trying to push her away.

“What’s going on?!”

“I don’t know! She’d been like this since she woke up!!”

The Stranger pulls her knees to her chest, eyes wide staring at Hannah. The scarf and other accessories seem to have slipped -or maybe someone removed them during their turn- allowing Sam to see her face better. She

She looks like her mother

Sam has literally no better way to describe The Stranger. She looks like her mother.

“…What day is it?” Even her  _voice_ , without the cloth in front of her mouth, sounds like Sam’s mother.

“The… Third of February?”

Sam could swear the Stranger’s face lit up at these words.

“But you’re alive.”

“…Yes?”

“I did it. I did it. I succeeded. I did it…”

This is all  _really_ confusing.

“Glad you… did it? Whatever ‘it’ is?”

The Stranger doesn’t answer, mumbling that same sentence over and over.

The sound of pounding feet rushing down the stairs was suddenly heard.

"Sam, are you okay?? We heard you screaming!”

Wait what?

“I didn’t- the  _Stranger_ screamed. Didn’t you hear her?”

All eight teenagers look at each others with the most confused look on their face.

“But… that was your voice.”

The Stranger barks a laugh behind the group, startling them.

“…Holy shit Sammy she really has your voice.”

That’s… Creepy. Really creepy. That and the Flamethrower Guy and the wendigowak… Sam’s head is spinning. That is definitively not how she pictured her week-end.

“If anyone has any explanations, I’d take them. Even if it’s raptor robots copying people voices or whatever. I’m not picky right now.”

“You’re not so far actually.” 

After saying that, the Stranger tries to sit more comfortably, only to grimace and inspect her arm. “Shiiiiit…”

There’s more silence for a few seconds, until Emily loses it.

“So? Are you going to tell us or what?”

“Hm? Oh. Right. Guess I can get this off my chest now that it’s over. Not that’s you’re going to believe me anyway.”

“A dude with a flamethrower carried your unconscious body in told us about cannibalism and curses and left. I think we can handle anything you’d tell us.”

The Stranger rises a brow. 

“I’m a time-traveler.”

Chris bats an eye.

“Okay. You were right. I don’t believe you.”

“Chris!”

“What? You can’t just say something like that and expect me to believe it! For the wendigowak I saw the slashes and Beth told me about the screeches- but here? There’s no proofs!”

Chris and the others keep bickering for a few minutes, but Sam doesn’t participate. She doesn’t do much of anything, actually. Just think. If that  _is_  true, and she sounded and looked like her mother- like  _her_ -

“Are you me?”

The Stranger smiles. It’s crooked, it’s bitter, but there’s a tiny hint of warmth behind it.

“So I wasn’t  _that_ stupid back then.”

* * *

_**If you go back, they won’t be your friends.**  
_

_She knows.  
_

_**You may have to wait.**  
_

_She knows.  
_

_**Maybe for years.**  
_

_She knows._

**_Alone._ **

_She knows._

**_…Will you?_ **

**_Go back and change time?_ **

_….Her life for ten others_

_Doesn’t sound like a bad deal._


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A while back someone had requested a sequel to the time traveler Sam fi, which I provided. That being said, that fic was always meant to be a standalone and in my opinion is better without its sequel, so. You be the judge.

“The person who guided us back to the Lodge. It was you, wasn’t it?”

It’s a statement, not a question. Frankly, Sam is impressed Beth remembers this event at all. They  _were_ quite young at the time.

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

“…What kind of question is that??”

“You hate us. Why did you help us?”

Hate?

“I don’t hate you.”

“Don’t lie. I remember how you treated our Sam when we found you.”

"I don't hate _you_." Sam repeats. "I hate  _Sam_ , not you.” If she did she wouldn’t have came back in the first place. Or maybe she would have. Being all alone… was not great on her health.

Then again, she was all alone here too.

“Why? Is it some kind of weird freudian self-loathing? She’s not you-”

“No.” Sam cuts. “But trust me, I know what she has the ability to do. What we both could do and have done. Maybe she would have made different choices than me, but at the core we’re the same person. I know who she really is. And it’s a  _selfish useless **bitch**_.”

Beth’s face flush in anger, her fists clenching. It’s weird, Sam thinks, that she missed that pissed face.

“You don’t know anything! Just because  _you_ fucked up doesn’t mean she’s responsible for it!”

“And what do you think?!” Sam spits back. “I could have been her. She could have been me. And you all  _died_ because I-”

Oh. No. Nonono. She didn’t just say that. She didn’t-

“We what?!”

“Nothing. Forget it.”

“Like hell I will. What happened in the future, Sam?!  What have you done??”

What she’s seen?

_Cold snow hot fire red blood Chris gone Ashley Josh left behind never caught up with them Emily’s pleas stopped by a gunshot screeches screams Hannah’s diary the prank the fear she could have saved them she could have saved him she could have saved them but **she ran for the switch**_

“You don’t want to know.”

“And yet here I am. Spill the beans, Sam. Tell me the truth.”

…

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Beth's face slowly turns white, as Sam retells the story. She listens anyway.

**Author's Note:**

> the tumblr's versegm folks!


End file.
